The Fairfax newspaper group has been undergoing some strange management gymnastics in recent times, but an announced policy change seems to be an exercise in wayward thinking. Across the entire business spectrum it has become fashionable to cut costs by moving functions offshore to low cost countries where labour can be hired at a fraction of the Australian domestic rate. Usually, the function involved is either accounting or a call centre - where a big number of people are involved.
Fairfax is dividing the newsrooms of it's regional papers - the Illawarra Mercury and the Newcastle Herald - from it's editorial production functions - and the editorial people will in future be located in New Zealand.
This breaks the nexus between on the spot reporters and their editorial bosses, who decide how to present a story and what significance it will generate in reader's minds. The nuances of local public opinion will be lost when policy decisions are made by people in a distant country, far removed from the scuttlebutt and comment heard in the clubs and pubs that the paper's readers frequent.
There is no doubt that this change will produce friction between the newsrooms and editorial floor. The communications age that brought us Facebook, Twitter, email and cheap phone calls will never replace the thought cohesion that connects when two people meet face to face and sort out a difference of opinion - and smooth out any lingering differences later by sharing an ale at the local watering hole.
What makes a local paper valuable to the people who buy it - is local news. A physical separation between the people who report it and the people who decide the slant with which it will be presented makes all the difference in perception - and that will be lost when this change is implemented.
It sounds like the ravings of some marketing genius who has been brought in to " modernise " and seeks to make change - simply for the sake of having things look " different "..
Making them " work " is an entirely different matter !
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